Wow. The first time you see your own movies in High Def, there's nothing to say but wow. The Canon Vixia HV40 is easy to use and delivers great video quality. If you're serious about capturing video that will last, this camera is a great choice.

I've had the camera about a week and shot several hours of video. Here are some of the positives I've found immediately:
1. Of course the image quality is breathtaking. Whether you are playing it back on a HD TV or on a PC, the picture quality will blow you away.
2. The 10x optical zoom is super fast and responsive. If anything, you'll find yourself having to slow down your zooming.
3. It comes with some great pre-programmed special use settings like sports, fireworks, snow, beach, night. I've already had a chance to use the sports, fireworks, and night settings and the video quality from each is incredible.
4. The built in still image camera which can shoot and save photos to a miniSD card even while recording video has excellent picture quality. It also benefits from the camera's 10x optical zoom. And, if you're shooting video in high def while taking pictures, the wide 16x9 aspect ratio almost gives your photos a panoramic view.
5. I think the built in still camera is good enough to replace my 2 year old Canon PowerShot. Except in rare cases where I just don't want to carry the slightly larger video camera, I can't see why I'd ever use a separate point-and-shoot still camera again.
6. The video quality is great even in low light settings (we got some great shots in dimly lit indoor zoo exhibits), in changing light (like animals roaming from run to shade), and even in near total darkness. The fireworks setting did a great job capturing fireworks video which I think is one of the hardest things for a consumer video camera to do well.

Some of the other features of this camera that you'll like are:
It's lightweight. The video controls are natural and easy to use. It shoots on standard MiniDV tapes, which seems to be one of the most popular tape formats for the last 5-10 years. If you've already got a an older MiniDV camcorder, you'll know these are easy to find. It's got all the connectivity (USB for photos, firewire for video) you'd expect and more. The lens cover is integrated and opens automatically. Still cameras have been doing this for years and as someone who's shot a lot of video of the inside of a lens cap, I'm happy to see this auto-open lens cover on a video camera now. Although I haven't tried any yet, it does accept some accessory microphones and lights.

For what it's worth, I did all of my shooting on standard MiniDV tapes. The manual recommends "High Def" tapes (see #3 below on why the manual isn't too useful) but I can tell you for sure: standard MiniDV tapes shoot high def video just fine. I can't see any reason to spend the 2-3 times more for the supposed "high def" tapes.

Some areas that may be plusses to some, negatives to others: I love that this camera captures HD video to a standard tape format, MiniDV. This lets me connect it to my PC and capture the raw video via firewire and convert it to practically any format I want. However, this does mean that there's an extra step for me that you wouldn't have if you were using a video camera that captures straight to a small hard drive or flash drive. That extra step though gives me higher quality video options as well as the ability to save and keep the original tapes in case I ever want to recapture the originals in a different format.

Integrated battery charger: The charger is part of the camera, not a separate device. The plus here is you can charge the battery with the camera plugged in and running (either shooting or playback). The minus is, you can't charge one battery while playing back with another.

Some things you may need to consider upgrading:
1. You'll probably want a 2nd battery. The included battery shoots for close to a full hour for me, using the camera the way that I think most people will - with the LCD viewscreen open and pausing, stopping, starting every few minutes. That's good but you'll probably want more battery life.

2. If you've got Windows Vista, Windows 7, or a Mac with a recent version of iMovie, you can capture HD video from the camera to your PC and do basic editing. But, no video capture software is included with the camera, not even a trial. Considering what you're spending to get a very good video camera though, you'll probably want to invest a little more and get some good video editing software.

3. The manual leaves a lot to be desired. Like most manuals, it tells you where all the buttons are and steps through all the menus, but does little to explain where or why to use them. Case in point, one of the auto-program settings is for a "cinematic mode." Unless you are a film school student, you're probably as stumped as I am on why 24p is more "cinematic" than the standard setting and the manual does nothing to explain it. Get more detail about Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom.